The Path Not Traveled
by SerendipityV2.5
Summary: On a cold and rainy day in the Land of Rain, Nagato's life changed forever. Abandoning his master's dreams, he took the road to revenge and never looked back. To him, there was no other choice. But of course, there's always a choice, and Nagato had another path open to him that day. The path to peace. What if he had chosen it? Oneshot, short and (hopefully) sweet.


Chapter 1: Heavy Rain

"You. Redhead. Use that. Kill Yahiko. Do this, and you and the woman will walk away from here."

Nagato stared at the kunai stuck in the mud before him, his eyes wide.

Yahiko stared at it as well, his face impossible to read.

"Nagato! Don't! Forget me! Run! Get away from here!" Konan screamed as Hanzō yanked at her hair, and Nagato's head jerked up to look at her, indecision clear on his face.

"Nagato." Yahiko's voice, clear and calm, pulled Nagato's attention from the struggling Konan. He looked at his brother in all but blood, and he didn't like what he found on the man's face. "Do it. Kill me."

The redhead froze, staring without comprehension.

"Please." Yahiko said. "You have to. It's the only way."

"It's… it's not. We can get out of this!" The redhead finally found his voice. Yahiko just shook his head. "No." He said, his voice sure. "We won't. Everyone else is gone. Can't you feel it? Hanzō already dealt with them. Now it's just us and him."

"Hurry it up!" The man in the mask called down to them. "I don't have all day! Or would you rather you see the woman die before yourself, Akatsuki?"

Gulping, Nagato bent down to pick up the kunai, if only to gather some time to think. The knife trembled in his hands, the rain having long since rendered them numb. The grip was slippery.

He turned to his friend. "Yahiko-"

There was no warning. There was no time. There was no chance. Nagato barely had time for his eyes to go wide.

Yahiko threw himself upon the blade in a burst of blinding speed, and Nagato staggered backwards as his friend's weight crashed into him. He could feel the kunai digging into Yahiko's chest, moving up under the ribcage and into his heart. He could feel blood on his hand, pumping from the wound in Yahiko's chest; blood on his shoulder, dripping from Yahiko's mouth as his head went limp against Nagato's neck.

"Nagato." Yahiko's voice was strong, despite the fact there was a kunai buried in his heart, but it was steadily failing. "Take Konan and get out of here. You and she are all that's left. You _must _survive." He coughed, and Nagato felt more blood on his neck and shoulder. "No matter what it takes. Remember…" He said, trailing off.

"You are the _savior_… of this world."

Nagato stepped backwards, shocked, and Yahiko slid off the kunai and crashed to the ground. A pool of blood, paled by the rain, spread out from beneath him. There was a faint smile on his face.

"I know… you can… do it." He said.

And then he died.

_Yahiko died_.

Nagato heard Konan screaming, but didn't really register it. He was too busy staring at the body of his first and best friend. The smile had slipped from his face: it was now lax in death. That wasn't right. Yahiko was always smiling. He was just that kind of person. Him lying there, in a slowly spreading pool of his own blood, a pained and vacant expression on his face… it just wasn't right.

Konan screamed again, and he heard another voice, one deep and menacing.

"Kill him too."

Nagato looked up slowly, in no rush (what was the point, Yahiko was dead, the brave one was dead, the man who would be god was dead) and found hundreds of kunai and shuriken bearing down of him. They would tear him apart, send him dead to the muddy earth, and make him Yahiko's equal. Make him something he'd never been in life.

But Nagato saw something else, something that was entirely _not_ the coming kunai and the gleeful faces of the ninja who had thrown them.

He saw, clear as day, two paths set before him.

The first: revenge.

The second: rebirth.

They were for him to choose as he saw fit. _Nagato _could choose, something he'd rarely had the chance to do in his life. He could choose how this day would end. Choose the course of his life, in this moment, as the blood of his friend began to wash against the edge of his sandals and a storm of metal bore down on him as the only other person he loved, the only other person he'd _sworn_ to protect, desperately screamed in denial.

To Nagato, the choice seemed easy. These men had killed his friend. These men had helped turn the Land of Rain into a blasted wasteland where the other shinobi villages fought tooth and nail over issues that wouldn't affect the people of Rain at all if the other villages didn't choose to make the place their battleground. And one man, the re-breather wearing _bastard_ that stood above him, had been the architect of his own lands destruction.

Of _course_ they deserved to die. Was there any doubt?

He raised his hand, and effortlessly swatted away the razor death with a pulse of his will. He felt shock and confusion above him, and he smiled. They should be confused. They should be _scared_. He was going to kill them all. He was going to get them back for Yahiko. He was going to get _revenge_.

_There is far too much hatred in this world. I intend to do something about it._

Nagato paused, the words of his sensei ringing through his mind. He froze, his legs still tensed. Another wave of kunai came: he repelled it just as he had the last, barely focusing. Metal clattered on metal as they fell to the ground, and Nagato frowned, the look horrifying to those who could see it. When people who blocked kunai with their _mind_ frowned, it was generally asserted that bad things were about to happen.

_I believe that those eyes of yours may hold the answer, Nagato. The answer to all this world's hatred._

Was sensei's answer the death of these men? The death of Hanzō? Nagato thought, as the Rain ninja stared.

No.

It wasn't.

Despite these men being enemies, Jiraiya would want them dead no more than he would Nagato himself. As a necessity, to protect others: of course. But not for _revenge_; never for revenge.

But what was he supposed to do? Just let them walk away? He couldn't. He couldn't do that. It was impossible. How could he create peace by letting murderers like these escape?

"Nagato!" Konan screamed again, and he looked up to find her held in the air, Hanzō's hand around her throat and a kunai gripped in his hand. He didn't hesitate: there was not way he would lose both his friends today. That could not happen. He raised a hand towards Konan.

"Banshō Ten'in." He murmured, and Konan was torn from Hanzō's grasp, rocketing down towards him. He caught her in his arms, sliding backwards across the ground before slowing to a stop. Hanzo looked at him, incredulous. The rest of the ninja contingent stared.

Nagato set Konan on her feet, and she rushed to Yahiko, falling over his bleeding body, weeping. He stared at her for a moment, then back up at Hanzō. The leader of Amegakure was staring back, cocking his head slightly.

"I see." The man said. "You were the true leader. But you made a mistake in revealing yourself to me. I truly did believe that Yahiko was in charge. What will you do now, boy?"

Nagato looked at him, his gaze flickering, and then looked down. "I don't know." He said, barely loud enough to be heard over the rain.

"What?" Hanzō replied, sounding like he was chuckling. "You don't know? Not much of a leader, are you? Shouldn't you be trying to avenge your subordinates?"

Nagato's voice was even quieter than it had been before, but Hanzō could still hear it. "I'm not the leader. And _I don't know_."

"Come on, brat!" Hanzō yelled. "I didn't come all the way out here just for you to give up and die. Fight! I want to see something exciting! Show me what a student of the Sannin can do!"

"NO!" Nagato yelled, his voice far louder than the rain should have allowed. Hanzō flinched, and several of the Rain ninja involuntarily took a step or two backwards. The Root contingent merely stared, their faces hidden behind their masks.

"I WON'T TAKE REVENGE! I WON'T RUIN SENSEI'S DREAM!" He was panting, his eyes manic. He looked completely crazed. "I want to kill you now! All of you! Crush you into the ground, rip out your souls, turn you to dust! Do you know what this is!?" He yelled, jabbing at his eye. "This is the RINNEGAN! I have the eyes of the Sage himself! Do you really think I couldn't kill you were you stand! It would be _too easy_!" Konan looked up from Yahiko's body, her tears still flowing.

"But I'm not going to!" Nagato yelled. "I _can't_. What would sensei think of me then? He entrusted his peace to me: I can't just abandon it! But now…" he clutched his head. "Now, Yahiko's dead and I _don't know what to do_!" He finished, looking desperate.

"Enough of this." A calm, inflectionless voice made Hanzō and Nagato turn, looking at the group of Konoha ninja. The one in front, who was apparently the leader despite his complete lack of identification, had spoken. He did so again, with just as little emotion. "Attack."

The masked men leapt into the air, all heading for Nagato, clearly meaning to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. The Rain ninja held back for one reason: because Hanzō himself did. He merely watched intently.

Nagato screamed, a sound of pain and fear and frustration, and pushed both his arms out towards the oncoming ninja. An invisible force shoved aside the rain between him and them before crashing headlong into the Leaf ninja, sending them flying back into the cliffs, slamming into the unforgiving rock with the sounds of breaking stones and muffled screams. They fell, and remained where they landed, twisted and mangled by the force that had crushed them.

"LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!" Nagato yelled, the rainfall making it look like he was crying. "We just wanted to _live_! All Yahiko wanted was a world where people like us could grow up without fear! Where there would be no orphans! And this-" he said, sweeping his hand over the crumpled bodies of the Root ninjas, "this is what's come of that dream! More bodies! More _orphans_! When will this stop!? Can't we just STOP!?"

And as Hanzō and his ninja's stared down at Nagato, who now, just like Konan, certainly _was_ crying, the rain stopped.

The clouds did not draw back. Sunlight did not illuminate the scene. The sky remained as grim as ever. Nonetheless, as if a switch had been flipped, the rain petered away, leaving many of the Ame-nin staring upwards in astonishment, Hanzō extremely unsettled, and the sound of Nagato's hiccupping clear.

This was the Land of Rain. There was a reason it was called that. The rain hadn't stopped in _months_. The chance that it would do so now, at that moment, was too laughable to call it a coincidence.

"Please." Nagato gasped, falling to his knees and pressing his hands into the ground, staring down. "Please, just go. Just leave. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Just go."

Hanzō turned to his subordinates, who stared back with undisguised fear. They thought that he was going to order them to attack as well. But Hanzō wasn't feared because he was suicidal, or because he threw away the lives of his ninja on a whim.

He looked over his shoulder at the weeping Nagato, and sighed. Without looking back, Hanzō spoke. Nagato froze, his tears forgotten, as he listened.

"You are a fool, boy. You regard the world with a child's eyes. War is not something that will just 'stop'. Hatred will always outlast peace. Alliances will always be temporary. This shinobi world is one of revenge and death, and no man will ever be able to change that." Hanzō's eyes were cold and little more than slits, and some of the Ame-nin shivered at the site of them. Nagato, still staring at the ground, drew his hands into fists.

"However…" Hanzō said, and Nagato looked up at his back. "You are a powerful fool, and I will not sacrifice more of my men to you today. So, we will leave for now. But be warned: we will be back. _I_ will be back, and then you will see how much of a child you are." Hanzō said, and then he held is hands up in a simple sign and vanished. His contingent followed him, several audibly sighing in relief, and then it was silent as Nagato stared at where they had been and Konan stared at him.

Moments later, the rain began again.

Nagato slammed his hand into the ground, sending out small cracks, and then collapsed, raggedly breathing. Konan slowly approached him, bending down besides him.

"Nagato?" She said, her voice trembling, and the redhead looked up at her, his eyes quivering.

"Sensei would be proud." She said, tearing up once more. She tried to hug him, but Nagato pushed her back, staggering to his feet and turning back to Yahiko, who still lay on the ground.

"Not yet." He said, trembling. "I'm not done yet." He shakily walked over to Yahiko's body as Konan watched, hurt by his rejection. He fell to his knees in front of his friend, and cradled his head.

"Nagato?" Konan asked. "What are you-?"

"The Sage of the Six Paths-" he interrupted her, his face fixed in concentration, "was said to have complete mastery over the world. Jiraiya-sensei told me. He could use all of the elements effortlessly. He could know any secret, judge men's souls, and control the primordial and the unknowable. He even had domain over the living and dead. Konan-" he said, looking up at her with eyes full of something she couldn't really identify. "I can do all that. I can use all the elements. I can use jutsu that manipulate gravity and rip people's lives away. I don't even know _how_, most of the time. I just _do_. So-" he said, staring back at Yahiko's body.

"I want to try something."

"Oh my god, Nagato. You can't really-" Konan said, before Nagato interrupted her again.

"I won't know until I try, Konan." He said, shrugging. Then, he closed his eyes and clutched his friend closer. His eyes moved rapidly under their lids, darting back and forth. He was looking for something.

He found it a moment later.

Nagato smiled, and Konan stared at him, unable to believe what she was seeing. "Nagato?" She asked.

The redhead brought his hands up in a simple sign, clasping them and raising two fingers. He took in a deep breath.

And _pulled_.

As Konan watched, the air around Nagato filled with his bright blue chakra. It burned away the rain around him, and instantly dried him and Yahiko. Nagato opened his eyes, and they too burned with something that hadn't been there before. His hands trembled, and he gritted his teeth, a trickle of blood running from his nose.

"Nagato, stop!" Konan cried. "Don't! I can't lose you too! Stop this!" The aura of chakra had expanded enough that it washed over her as well; warm and comforting even as she watched her friend seemingly kill himself right in front of her. There was too much chakra. No one could survive that kind of expenditure. This would have killed Jiraiya-sensei.

Nagato ignored her. He took another deep breath, and yelled.

"Give him back!"

Two things happened in an instant.

The first was Nagato's mouth, already wide, wrenching itself open just a little more and a green blur of light shooting from it, sinking into Yahiko's body. The orange-haired teen jerked, and then lay back.

The second was Nagato's hair suddenly turning white. The bright red seemingly slid away, as paleness spread from the roots of his hair, the top of his head turning first before the rest of it became just as bleached. Nagato's head went limp and he slumped on his knees, his hands falling away from Yahiko's head.

Konan gasped, and Yahiko's eyes shot open. He jerked upright, nearly colliding with Nagato's head as the former redhead wheezed, completely exhausted. Yahiko looked around wildly, before seeing Konan, who was staring at him, eyes wide and mouth even wider.

"Konan?" He asked, completely confused. "What happened? I thought-"

He looked back at Nagato, who was panting, wavering on his knees as darkness closed in on him. "Nagato! Your hair… what's going on?"

Nagato didn't answer. He just collapsed, completely unconscious.

And the rain fell.

AN: I'm working on a much larger story right now, one that I intend to publish soon (as soon as I've got the beginning beta-ed). This idea just struck me while I was writing that one, so I banged it out in an hour or two. I don't really intend to continue it, but I had to get it out of my head. I hope you enjoyed the short adventure of Ginger Jesus.

Leave a review if you liked this. Or if you hated it. Or if you want to see more like it. Serendipity, out.


End file.
